


Making Friends

by Miranda_tries_their_best



Series: Lost and Found - Zombie AU [4]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Abandonment, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Bitterness, Blindness, Cats, Description of being murdered, Implied/Referenced Character Death, No ones actually dead but they don't know that, Past Child Abuse, Trust Issues, Virgil apparently has a history of making his loved ones think he's dead, Zombie Apocalypse, burn scars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2019-11-09
Packaged: 2021-01-26 04:28:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21368182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miranda_tries_their_best/pseuds/Miranda_tries_their_best
Summary: Deceit still couldn't believe he got in this fucking mess. He's supposed to be smarter than this, be better than some stupid kid. He has to scars and experience to prove it but here he is, curled up and hugging his legs in the back of an antique store's break room.All because of a stupid cat, with stupid meowing, stupid stupid stupid-The boy had heard her faint pathetic cries from the ally beside the store and while the undead seemed to ignore her, Deceit thought he could sneak in to help the stupid animal. One small act of kindness that he knew no one else would do in this world.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Deceit Sanders, Morality | Patton Sanders & Deceit Sanders
Series: Lost and Found - Zombie AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1410031
Comments: 14
Kudos: 102





	1. Stupid Cats

Deceit still couldn't believe he got in this fucking mess. He's supposed to be smarter than this, be better than some stupid kid. He has to scars and experience to prove it but here he is, curled up and hugging his legs in the back of an antique store's break room.

All because of a stupid cat, with stupid meowing, _stupid stupid stupid-_

The boy had heard her faint pathetic cries from the ally beside the store and while the undead seemed to ignore her, Deceit thought he could sneak in to help the stupid animal. One small act of kindness that he knew no one else would do in this world.

* * *

_"Sometimes people are just kind." The older brother explained one night while the younger clung to his side in the shared guest bed. The nice(horrible) woman from across the street caught them locked out in the rain, offered them a place to stay for the night, made them warm food. The younger couldn't understand how she didn't want anything in return. "Also, I think she's kinda lonely."_

* * *

it was a bunch of garbage but he still found himself slinking his way into the building, silent footsteps unnoticed as he maneuvers through the shelves. There was one infected, standing outside the door of the backroom where the cat's cries came from. It didn't even have the chance to turn before the boy kicked it's leg out and shoved his hunting knife into the back of its head.

He entered the room to find her buried inside a box with a fallen rack on top of it, he guesses it fell while she was in there or maybe she crawled in without realizing she couldn't get out as animals sometimes do.

* * *

_"--il, Noodle got her head stuck again and I can't find the butter!"_

_"Jesus, Dee, I told you to put the snake back outside!" The older brother shouted from the top of the stairs._

* * *

He should have just ignored it, really should have ignored it as his brain told him to but she looks at him and mewed so pathetically, that being the somewhat decent person he sometimes is had to help her get out. Hindsight is 20/20 after all.

The twelve year old didn't even get to pet her as the little beast immediately dashed, hopping up the piled boxes to escape out the tiny window in the corner of the room. He normally wouldn't have cared, probably would have done the same if it were him but when she was climbing the boxes she kicked one over.

It landed with a crash and spilled shattered glass all across the floor. Unlike the cat's cries, this was not ignored by the ravenous undead outside.

Which leads him to his current situation, curled up away from the shattered glass in a ball and desperately trying to convince himself he's not about to die, that everything's going to be fine, he just needs a plan.

"I'm not going to cry." Deceit tells himself, stubbornly rubbing at his eyes with the sleeve of his stupid itchy wool sweater while trying to ignore the sounds coming from the door like if he just pretends it doesn't exist, it would go away.

The only thing blocking it was a flimsy plastic table that wasn't doing anything as a barricade. He could try using the boxes but they were too heavy to move quickly and would probably just make more noise, the door looked like it was already starting to give and the boy wasn't about to tease anymore undead to come and help break it down. The fucking door didn't even have a lock, the infected were just too stupid to grab the doorknob.

All he could do now was hold back his tears and wait to die.

At least Deceit didn't have to be tired anymore, he wouldn't have to worry about waking up screaming with phantom pains and too bright lights or the smell of smoke. He wouldn't get mistaken for being undead when someone sees half his face missing because he actually will be undead. He wouldn't have to wear a million layers of clothes to keep his scarred left side of his body warm because for some reason being burnt alive made him lose all his tolerance for the cold.

But at least his brother is on the other side, if there is one, waiting for him to finally come to him. Deceit found that thought to be bittersweet, His older brother will be so proud of how far he made it on his own, he probably is already planning to tease him for being soft enough to die for a cat. It was a calico but Deceit's going to tell his brother it was a black cat to at least live up to their shared dark aesthetic.

It's surprisingly comforting, imagining that there's something to gain by giving up like this. The boy isn't ready for it but he tells himself he is, trying to make some sort of peace before monsters break through the door and rip into his flesh like they're starving despite the fact the bastards don't even need to eat to live.

Dee glances at the door, trying to gauge how much time he has left-

The banging stops.

Deceit can scarcely believe it, the boy silently listens to the undead shuffle away from the door, seemingly drawn in by something more distracting than his quiet. He scrambles to his feet, carefully stepping over shattered porcelain to press his good ear against the door only to be startled when there's a soft knocking from the other side and the jiggling of the handle. The young teen stepped back as the door opened slightly only to stop when it hit the table.

"Hello?" Someone whispered. "Is someone in there?"

Deceit's poor heart is already racing again. "Wh-" The boy's voice cracks and he has to clear his throat. (When was the last time he talked to someone?) "Who are you?" He demands with more strength then he feels, hearing the stranger's breath hitch in probably surprised that someone's actually stupid enough to end up in this situation. Still, it has to be safe for now, he rationalizes. The person will make too much noise if they try to force their way in, they wouldn't risk their own safety just to hurt him.

"Oh... My- my name is Patton." This 'Patton' finally replies after a long moment. "What's your name?" They ask in a sad tone that puts Deceit on edge. "Kiddo, we should get you out of there." They say when the boy doesn't answer them, without waiting for a reply they close the door again, obviously expecting Deceit just to comply.

He kinda has too though, since he has no other exit so they win this round.

The table is a little awkward to pick up without dragging but Deceit manages to silently move it enough the that he can squeeze through a small opening in the door.

Halfway through the boy thinks to lift up his hood of the jacket he has over his wool sweater(He gets really cold, okay?) and pull it over the scarred side of his face, maybe if they think he's still a cute kid this person will be less inclined to hurt him until he can get away from them.  
The stranger puts their hand on his arm, helping him through the door. It's unsettling that they touch him so easily but they're gripping him gently, something he can pull away from without much trouble which is a good sign that this person might actually just be an idiot trying to help but Deceit knows better than truly believe that until after he's already miles away from them.

The twelve year old can barely see in the store, nightfall must have come while he was curled up totally not crying and waiting to die. It makes it really hard to see his 'rescuer' beyond a dark silhouette with curly hair and a large hoodie. Dee can normally tell if a person is bad news by their eyes so that fact that the darkness keeps this stranger a shadow leaves him paranoid, his only solace is that they're not actually that much taller then he is so he can probably go for their throat easily if he needs to.

"Come on, buddy. We should get out of here." Patton moves slowly, the hand that gripped his arm gently takes the boy's hand and carefully leads him through the decaying store.

Deceit decides to count his blessings, for now at least, being half-blind in the dark would probably have to lead him to getting screwed over so he puts a tiny amount of trust in this Patton to at least get him away from the undead.


	2. Scarred Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two boys left behind reopen some wounds but also help each other heal a little bit

Despite noticing glasses on the other's face, Patton seemed to have unnatural eyesight in the dark. They were able to warn Dee if he needed to be careful where he stepped and always stopped in time to let infected just walk right past them without being noticed, he was pretty sure it was supernatural or maybe Patton had those weird glasses that helped him see in the dark.

He refuses to admit that it was probably just because his unblinded eye just might be a little damaged. Absolutely not, he could see just fine in the light, it was just ridiculously dark right now.

  
His sight wasn't getting worse.

But it still was a relief when Patton pulled him into a quiet building, wandering around in the dark while surrounded by monsters with only a stranger to help guide you was not something Deceit took comfort in. Not to mention the feeling of a hand almost covered by a hoodie sleeve holding his brought up memories he has to try and repress again now that he's probably not about to die.

"We're going upstairs now." The stranger warned him, helping him find the first step before they continued to the second floor. It takes a moment for the scarred boy to realize they're in an apartment building and Patton is leading them down the hall into one of the apartments.

When Patton closes the door behind them and let's go of his hand to rummage through what Deceit assumes is their backpack, the thought hits him.

  
Shit, they're going to kill me. He's defenseless like this, in the dark only able to just barely see their movements. Deceit doesn't even know where the wall is, he can't reach out to try and touch it or Patton will realize just how blind he is if they haven't already. "Ah ha!" The stranger emotes excitedly while also startling the poor boy, the only warning Dee has is hearing them slump their bag against the wall and take a step towards him.

The teen forgets to breathe when the stranger grips his hand again. _How fast could they make that gentle holding into harsh gripping? Were they going to cut his wrists and watch him bleed out or were they just keeping him from running? He couldn't make it very far even if he could stumble out of the apartment, fuck, he should of just let the undead kill him. At least those bastards wouldn't fuck with him. What is-_

  
Something heavy and cold is placed the boy's hand, cutting off his spiral. "The windows are already covered so don't worry about the light, okay?" Patton speaks softly, soothingly? They must have realized he was freaking out a bit.

Deceit cautiously grips whatever's in his hand, running his thumb over- plastic? Hard plastic. He's not quite sure what it is until he finds a switch.

_A flashlight!_

The boy wastes no time is flicking it on, squinting as pure black is gone in an instant; Light now illuminating the walls around him. He's still emotional from earlier, under normal circumstances Deceit would refuse to show anything besides snark or bored disinterest but after thinking he was going to die and being dragged around in the dark with someone that could very well still decide to kill him; The boy feels his eyes watering as he tries to swallow the tightness in his throat.

"Woah, hey. It's okay, we're safe for now." Patton tries to sooth, suddenly now deciding to respect his personal space despite having already grabbed him multiple times and giving him some room to breathe.

Deceit takes a deep breath, ignoring the way his lung shudders and looks up to actually greet his rescuer only to find it's not a just a short adult like he expected. It's another teen, probably older than him but still very much has a youthful face.

It breaks something inside Deceit as he meets the pitying gaze of another boy, the most pathetic whimper escapes his throat as he tries to hold back this weird wave of desperation as Patton's eyes were flickering over the light scars that peaked out from behind the hood Deceit hid in.

"Kiddo, can I- Do you want a hug?" The older teen had no right so sound so hopeful when asking for that, Deceit can't understand how they haven't had a knife in their back yet but he can't really judge when he stiffly nods to accept. He keeps himself tense as arms wrap around him, a hand at his back and another cradling the back of his head through his hood.

  
Deceit can't relax, it's not in his nature anymore but he lets himself lean against the other, purely because they're so warm compared to him and not at all because this is the first hug he's allowed himself to have in the two and a half years his brother has been dead. This stranger is clinging onto him, holding him close and tightly and Dee finds himself clinging back.

He shuts his eyes, ignores the light, ignoring how the other boy was too short, smelt too much like old sweat. Ignoring the numbness of dead nerves along the left side of his body and just pretending this was Virgil, wrapped around him again, shielding him from the world once more. The stitches in Patton's hoodie reminding him home, when he'd crawl in bed with his brother and trace the familiar patterns of stitches.

It reminded him a bit too much.

He shoves Patton back suddenly, the older boy yelping as he hits the wall behind him. "Owie..." He mumbled, rubbing the back of his head.

Deceit felt his heart stop at the faded purple plaid, a growing pit in his stomach as he counted the stitches on the old hoodie. The number was wrong, some of the stitches were replaced by someone who didn't know the right pattern.

A whine tears from his throat, his hands shooting up to muffle the pathetic sound. Patton stared at him with wide eyes, reaching out a hand to sooth but Deceit jerked back, slamming himself into the wall to get away from this imposter.

  
The younger boy swallows down the feeling of being sick, replacing his vulnerability with red hot hate. "Where did- Where did you get that hoodie?" He all but growls, letting his hood out of the way. Patton gasps slightly, seeing the extent of his scarring and backing up a bit. Good, let him be scared. "I asked you a question!"

"My friend- I-It was his, he gave it-"

"Liar!" Dee screeched, he's probably being too loud but he couldn't find it in him to care. "That's not yours!" Fury raced through the boys veins, Virgil died when he got burnt. They didn't have any friends, they only had each other. Someone stole the sweater from his brother's body. "It's stolen! That doesn't belong to you!" His voice cracks in his rage, making him sound more desperate than angry.

Patton's clinging onto the fabric of the hoodie, confused and scared but somehow still not attacking yet as Deceits use to which only reminds the younger how weak this moron probably is. "N-no. No, Virgil wouldn't have done that, please!" 

Virgil.

"Vir-" Dee felt the tension melt from his shoulders but not in any comfortable way, his blood switched from boiling to frozen by one name. "No, You're lying- how?" Virgil died, Hit over the head and dragged off by that bitch but how would this stranger know his name? What are the chances of someone else named Virgil stealing his brothers sweater. "He- Virgil wouldn't leave me behind. He didn't- he died, if he wasn't dead he would have found me-" His hand is to his mouth again, muffling the noises he makes as he tries to reassure himself.

"Oh, kiddo..." The older boy in front of him looked devastated.

Deceit just felt broken, this couldn't be real. "When- When did you last see him?" Any other time the boy would cringe at all weak his voice is but head feels too stuffy to care.

"A little over a month ago." Sad eyes pin Dee in place, the older boy reaching out and pulling him into another hug. It's more gentle than before, barely there pressure keeping him in place. "He was bitten... We-"

Deceit felt the other shake, quiet sniffles as this stranger hugged him and cried for a reason the boy couldn't understand. He says more, Dee knows he's babbling out words like a mess but at this point, he's zoning out. The younger boy barely realizes it when he's being moved deeper into the apartment, doesn't know when exactly he ended up on the couch but thankful that when he finally becomes more aware that Patton isn't still touching him and is instead curled in a ball on the other side of the couch.

The flashlight is turned off beside him but cracks of light filter in through the covered windows. It's a little annoying, but he can make out everything in the room at least.

The scarred teen finds himself watching the other teen sleep, as creepy as it sounds, he thinks he's entitled to a little staring after yesterday's bullshit. He finds himself watching the soft rise and fall of the body in his brother's sweater and finds himself wondering if he should run or not.

_Should I care about Patton?_

On one hand, this was someone his brother trusted. He had to be if Virgil gave him his hoodie, he barely even let Deceit wear it.  
A part of him wants to know who this person is. The other part of him wants to leave this asshole to die.

Virgil abandoned him, why should he care about any of his brand new friends? Patton was a mess, helping some random person and immediately hugging them and welcoming them into his resting spot. Deceit should really teach him a lesson, steal whatever useful the older teen has while he's asleep and leave him for dead.

That option feels better, petty and probably going to lead to his savior's death but that's hardly his responsibility.

On another hand; yes, he can have three hands. Shut up.

Patton just saved him out of some weird kindness, had cried for him when he realized that Dee knew his friend and hugged him in some attempt at comfort. The stranger's first instinct was to help and that was probably going to get him killed, he has no idea how he made it this long.

Deceit rationalized that he was just going to stick with Patton until they got out of the city, that after that he wouldn't owe him anything or need to stick around.

That was a week ago and now they were walking side by side along the highway. It was frustratingly useful to have someone that could actually see things in the distance, even if all they really saw was a blur, it was significantly better blur then what the younger of the two saw.

So he kept Patton around because his eyes were useful, not at all because of that stupid weird feeling in his chest that made him ache at the idea of being alone again.

"I made that hoodie, you know." Deceit blurts out as they walk, Patton slows down a bit when he speaks which is a little bit of a relief because Dee's bad leg is starting to ache pretty badly but he's too stubborn to say anything. "I made it for him when I was seven, it was atrocious and falling apart." The younger keeps his eyes to the cracked cement under his feet. "I bet the hoods still uneven and originally I had sewn the left sleeve shut." He remembers Virgil laughing when he couldn't put it on, his brother's expression morphing quickly from amused to panicked as he realized Dee started crying with his mistake. Patton doesn't need to know that part though.

"I can't besleeve you did that." 

"Yeah, well, I was still-" The boy pauses, snapping his head up to glare at the other as his wording sunk in. "Oh, disgusting."

Patton was already smiling but Deceit's response makes his entire being seemed to light up with joy at the younger's misery. "Anyway." The boy says with too much snark, regrettably watching his travel companions spark fade just a little bit. "We um, we ended up remaking it a dozen times before it actually looked right. Anx- ah, Virgil never really took it off." He's not sure why he's telling Patton this, it was rather pointless but the silence of the road was getting to him.

Patton sighed through his nose, his eyes getting that stupid sadness once again as he spoke. "Virgil barely trusted us with it. I remember the first time it ripped around us I thought he was going to cry but-" The elder teen pauses as his voice cracks, Deceit tactfully ignores how watery his eyes looked. "It took him a really long time to trust us, Roman had tried to go and fix the rip for him and Virge actually bit him." Patton has already told him all about his friends, Virgil's new friends. He doesn't know if he's angry for Virgil having someone else or jealous that he was left with no one.

"Bitings a good way to make people not touch you." He says before he can fall too keep into his bitterness

Patton laugh was soft, his hand coming up to rub his nose as he blinked tears away. "That- That's very true, Roman didn't reach for him without a warning after that." The silence was less unbearing after that, Patton's shoulders looked less weighed down and he kept his watery smile.

"Hey, kiddo?" He asks later that day when they're preparing to camp for the night. "You never told me who you are."

Deceit doesn't give a reply right away, remaining silent until after gets a bit too dark for him to really see and Patton doesn't ask any more questions to break that quiet. He has to make deal with being on the ground with Patton instead of safe in the trees like he usually does, he tried to justify that he could at least see the stars this way but those tiny distant lights were unseeable.

_He didn't know if they just weren't out tonight or if he was too blind to see them but he wasn't about to ask._

"I like to be called Deceit... Or Dee if that makes you uncomfortable." He finally says into the darkness in the direction he believes Patton is in. "Don't ask my real name, I won't give it. I'm surprised Virgil even told you his, he uses to have everyone calling him Anxiety when we were in school."

Patton's breathy laugh shouldn't put him at ease as it did. "He didn't tell us his name for a long time, we were certain he was probably going to disappear in the night eventually but he never did." The ease is replaced by a pit in his stomach.

"He left me."

If Patton reached over and held his clammy scarred hand so gently; Dee didn't say anything.

If Deceit gently squeezed back, accepting the little amount of comfort and warmth then that was his business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I didn't actually originally plan for Deceit to be Virge's brother. Patton was just suppose to save this random sassy child but I'm kinda a slut for brotherly Anxceit so I made it happen.
> 
> I also almost completely forgot Patton was wearing Virgil's sweater until like 4am last night when I was writing the first chapter.

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who's Deceit's totally dead brother?
> 
> Guess who's wearing their totally dead friend's hoodie?


End file.
